Julio Acevedo: Nathan, Raizy Glauber hit and run suspect identified by New York police

Mary Snow Chris Boyette and Catherine E. Shoichet

3:26 PM, Mar 4, 2013

4:01 AM, Mar 5, 2013

New York police say they are searching for Julio Acevedo, 44, who is wanted in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed two expectant parents whose baby was delivered and later died.

WPIX, CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York police are searching for a male suspect in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed two expectant parents and caused the death of their newborn boy.

Police identified the man as Julio Acevedo, 44, and released a photo of him on Monday. It was not immediately clear how police believe the suspect was connected with the crash.

Acevedo has a prior criminal record, New York police said.

The police statement comes a day after a car crash that killed Nathan and Raizy Glauber and devastated a close-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York.

Their baby boy was delivered by cesarean section from his dead mother's womb. He survived for a day before succumbing to his injuries on Monday, police said.

At the time of the crash, the Glaubers -- both 21 -- were on the way to Long Island College Hospital, said Officer Sophia Tassy-Mason, a spokeswoman for the New York City Police Department.

"She just wasn't feeling well and they just, they went to check it out," said Sarah Gluck, Raizy Glauber's cousin.

Police say a BMW slammed into the Glaubers' cab at an intersection. The two occupants of the BMW fled on foot.

Authorities arrested the registered owner of the BMW on Monday. Takia Walker was arrested on insurance fraud charges, Browne said.

The deadly crash brought heartache to the Glaubers' Hasidic community in Brooklyn, many of whom mourned the couple's deaths at a funeral service on Sunday.

"What can we do now?" Isaac Abraham, a community leader and neighbor of the couple, said on Monday. "We are looking at the prosecutor; we want the people responsible charged with triple homicide, nothing less."

The young Orthodox Jewish couple were "preparing for the most joyous moment in life, to become parents, ready to build a castle to the future and build a family," he told CNN affliate WABC.

"The message to the driver: We know law enforcement is going to get to you," he said. "But our message is give yourself up before we find you."

The driver of the cab, a Toyota Camry, was taken to the hospital and later released.

"The only thing I can remember is when somebody was on the side of me, on the passenger side, telling me, 'Don't worry. Don't worry. The ambulance is on the way,'" driver Pedro Nuñez Delacruz told CNN affiliate WABC. "I feel very lucky, you know, that I'm still alive."

Delacruz said he didn't find out what happened to the Glaubers until he got into the ambulance.

"I feel very sorry for that beautiful family," he said.

Motor vehicle crashes are among the leading causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the first nine months of 2012, more than 25,500 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That number showed a 7% increase over the number of deaths in the same period in 2011, officials said.